I wrote about how I got into makeup, now I’m going to share with you guys how the whole online thing started. It all started with myspace, back when I was 16 when everyone had one and still used it. I was snooping around one of my friend’s groups and noticed some makeup group so I checked it out which led me to discover more makeup groups on myspace. I thought, “wow, people who love makeup just like me!” so I started to become involved with the groups. People would post their FOTDs and participate in challenges; monroemisfitmakeup was really involved with those and her looks always won through voting.

Around that time I was also using Bare Minerals and I also found a Bare Minerals group. I noticed that my face would feel like it’s burning or itchy by the afternoon and I first I thought it was because I wasn’t washing my face enough or something. I ended up asking the members on the myspace Bare Minerals group about it and they said that it was probably because I was allergic to the bismuth oxychloride in Bare Minerals, which I later found out to be pretty common. Then I expressed how bummed out I was because I had just bought a Bare Minerals set and barely used it. Someone then offered to buy it off me, I remember her name was pugmommy. She was older than me and I think she was pretty brave to send the money first and wait for a 16 year old stranger to send their end lol. I mean, there are people much older on makeupalley who are known for swaplifting. Anyway, she told me to make an account on makeupalley.com and specktra.com so she could give me feedback for her purchase. That was when I learned about the two sites and I started to become really involved on Specktra.

Specktra had a tutorial section where people would take step by step pictures of them applying their makeup and explaining out the details. I loved looking at them so I wanted to make one of my own because it seemed fun to do. As I was trying to do it though, I found it to be so time consuming and inconvenient to have to stop after each step and take pictures. I gave up on that. Then someone posted a youtube video on Specktra with a link to pursebuzz’s Barbie Loves MAC video. It was a totally new thing to see a makeup tutorial on video so everyone on Specktra was pretty amused by it. That’s when I looked up more videos on youtube and only found one monolidded girl through the search and I remember she was applying makeup with some Pussycat Dolls song playing. I don’t think she does videos currently and I don’t think her old videos are even still up.

I really wanted to try making my own video after that but the camera I had at the time would only film 5 minutes at a time so I couldn’t really do anything with it. I waited until I got a macbook with a built in webcam to record my first makeup video and post it on youtube. Those first videos are long gone, and it’s better that way since I was 17 at the time and just… bleh! After that, you can pretty much see what’s gone on since then.

Here is my recent haul from Sephora. The manager at the Sephora inside JCPenny’s told me about their friends and family sale and also said that the Kat Von D palettes would be $15! When I came, the palettes were not on sale (yet) but luckily the manager who told me was there so they honoured the price. I got the palettes for $15 each, plus 20% friends and family discount, and I got a $15 promotional gift card from Sephora through the mail which I used too! Actually, I got to keep my $15 gift card because they couldn’t get it to work on their system so the discount was manually applied Grand total for all THREE palettes after tax was only $26!! These retail for $34 a piece!

The palettes are supposed to go on sale this week so you can get these for $15 too! I don’t know if it’s Sephora Inside JCPenny’s only or all Sephoras. I would call to make sure.

I never bothered to check out her eyeshadows until now and they’re not bad! Soooo much better than those “naked” palettes that everyone keeps talking about *yawn*

Metal Orchestra. This is my favorite palette. I call this the Vegas palette

Not too crazy about the left side but I really like the teal and black that’s on the right side.

Strada, Night Breed, Galapagos, Mekong (dry, no base)

Mekong, Night Breed
Strada, Galapagos

I’ve been really into NARS eyeshadows lately. They can get some getting used to because the texture of the shadows are different compared to most eyeshadows out there like MAC, Urban Decay, etc. When I got my first NARS shadow (Strada) I actually didn’t like it all that much because it was really powdery (but not chalky). NARS shadows have grown on me and now I love them! They are super pigmented.

Night Breed: Black spiked with silver glitter. I love using this black to line my eyes for a soft smudged look.
Galapagos: Intense golden brown shade spiked with gold glitter. Love it!
Strada: Cool lavender with gold glitter. This colour looks pretty neutral by my standards.
Mekong: Reddish brown/black with glitter. When I first swatched this shadow I instantly thought rock star. I had to have it.

My hair is looking like doodoo and I need to figure out what I want to do with my hair. A couple months ago, I made the decision that I wanted get my hair coloured and I wanted a rich ruby red shade. I kept having Jessica Rabbit in mind My hair stylist convinced me to go for a less intense, darker red shade and “we can just go brighter when you come for your touchup”. She had the swatch of hair against my black hair and the contrast made it look pretty red enough so I thought, “well, if I can go brighter next time then I guess it wouldn’t hurt to make a gradual transition”.

Turns out that when I showed up for my following appointment and told her I wanted to go brighter, she said that she’d have to do a colour correction. I had a haircut scheduled too and she said I’d have to reschedule the cut because she likes to take her time with colour corrections. Yeahhh… colour corrections are sometimes not easy processes and they aren’t cheap either. It was going to cost $140 or something like that for the colour correction alone I was pretty bummed. She made it sound like it was going to be no big deal for me to go brighter. If I had known that a colour correction was going to be involved I would have went with the brightest red from the beginning.

I ended up just keeping the old hair colour but I haven’t had my hair recoloured since. My original plan was to let my hair grow out and get it recoloured once it’s all virgin but 1) I’m coming to realize that that’s way to long for me to handle and 2) I’m already going mad at how tacky my hair is looking. When you decide to colour your hair, you are making a commitment to being able to maintain it. That is why I haven’t coloured my hair in a couple years; I was too lazy to keep up with getting it maintained. When you have a bunch of regrowth going on it makes you look like you were too lazy to take care of your hair and I’m feeling so unkept

I’m fiddling with the idea of just taking the dive with the colour correction procedure just once and getting my hair to it’s ideal shade. I’m also fiddling with the idea of doing it myself…

I found out that the brand my salon uses is Goldwell. Turns out that information was on their site this whole time and there I was thinking that it was a secret. I am impressed with Goldwell since their red has lasted longer than any red I’ve tried on myself during high school. I found some places that sell the brand online so I’m thinking of just buying the supplies and try to colour my hair myself. I’m not sure though because there are pros and cons with going to a salon vs at home colouring.

SALON
(pros)
- professional who knows what they’re doing
- no mess, no cleanup (this is kind of a big deal)
- even application of colour
- less time
- less stress

(cons)
- $70 + tip every 2.5 months

AT HOME
(pros)
- $20 every 2.5 months

(cons)
- don’t know what the heck I’m doing
- MESSY
- takes more time because of all of the above
- more likely to end up with patchy colour

Now I know I can research online so I’m not COMPLETELY clueless but there’s no way I can have the same knowledge as someone who’s gone through x many hours of schooling plus experience.

I did find a really cool product from Goldwell called a colour remover which could be my alternative to a pricey colour correction done at the salon. I found this video on Youtube and it seems like that same product is used as the first line of defense to removing hair colour. Hmmm it sounds easy enough. Apply, wait, and shampoo rigorously to remove as much colour as possible.

Wow, as I’m writing this I am coming to my decision. Ahh blogging sure is constructive Anyway, I think what I’m going to do is to at least try to do the colour removal myself along with the colouring myself. If I find that it’s too much work then I’ll go back to getting my hair coloured at the salon. At least I’d get the colour removal out of the way, yeah? Okay it’s settled.

Okay so heres another dilemma and it’s a bigger one. I can’t decide whether to colour my hair black or red. Actually what I’m looking to do is to colour my hair blue and hope that it turns into an ink blue but if not, worst case scenario, it turns black. I like both. I love black hair with blue eyeshadow and red hair with green. Black hair is a lot more low maintenance than red hair since my roots won’t too obvious but it doesn’t have that KAPOW factor that red hair has.

Uh, I don’t know what to do. I’m going to wear a wig for the time being, forealz.

Hey guys, I’ve recently made a purchase from dermstore.com and I wanted to share the site with you if you don’t know about it already.

They offer free shipping on any order and sometimes you can find coupon codes online to use. Here’s the thing, if there aren’t coupons currently available, you can still always get 10% off your purchase. All you have to do is add the item to your wishlist first and it will be 10% off when you purchase it! Not only that, but you get a mystery gift with every order. My mystery gift was a FULL SIZE pur-lisse lip nourisher that is sold for $22 on dermstore.com and other sites! I also got a free no strings attached 1 year subscription to Allure magazine, which I found to be a garbage magazine There was also an option to decline the subscription for a $12 rebate but I thought eh who knows when I’ll get that and plus it’s free to begin with so whatevs. As for the cherry on top, I was able to get 7.5% cash back through ebates

Bright blue side of MAC Sea and Sky eyeshadow. Top: Over Too Faced shadow insurance, over NARS Zardoz cream shadow Bottom: No Base

I think the above photo pretty much speaks for itself. There’s the swatch with no base; it’s sheer and you can see my skin through it, yuck! Over a primer, much better! Now over a black cream eyeshadow used as a base, the colour has completely changed. It’s fun to experiment with different base colours and eyeshadows because some bases can really bring out certain hues that aren’t visible over skin colour.

I ALWAYS wear a primer underneath eyeshadow. I would rather wear no eye makeup than have to wear eyeshadows without a primer. With a primer the eyeshadows apply more vividly and also last longer. I don’t like touching up any of my makeup throughout the day once it has been applied except for lips, so an eye primer is a must.

UH! You don’t know how hard it was for me to track down these friggen shadows. I think I was better off getting them on eBay. I was taking my sweet time to check out the VV collection. I didn’t feel like going to the mall so I kept putting it off. I knew that many products sold out on the MAC site but I thought, “Eh, they’ll have it in stores”. I ended up having to call several MAC locations to check what they had in stock and I had to go to two different MAC locations to get the last My Dark Magic and the last She Who Dares After spending the time and gas money to go out of my way to get these shadows, I realized that I could have just ordered them online when the collection just came out and there was a free shipping promo as well I always order stuff online rather than going to the store and I don’t know what I was thinking at the time. I guess I wanted to see the stuff in person before making a final decision of what I wanted. Boo! Well that was a learning experience.
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double sparkle 465, double sparkle 457, AMC 58, double sparkle 491,  AMC 71

double sparkle 465, double sparkle 457, AMC 58, double sparkle 491,  AMC 71 (no base, dry, flash)

Where to buy: Inglot store locations

I visited the Inglot location in Bondi, Australia this summer and spent over three hours at their kiosk swatching everything I saw! I actually didn’t even get to look at everything. They have hundreds of different shades of nail polishes, lipsticks, and eyeshadows. I knew I wanted a freedom palette and I first grabbed all the colours that I was interested in and then started to narrow down my selection. I spent an insane amount of time deciding what I wanted. My cousin was very surprised at how indecisive I was but when it was her time to pick her colours she did the same thing lol. I thought I was going to get the 10 shadow freedom palette but surprisingly, I was able to narrow it down to only five shadows! I was pretty shocked and impressed at myself lol! All the shadows I chose had a glittery finish, OF COURSE. You know I love my glitter! The sparkle shadows are kind of powdery, similar to the texture of NARS shadows. The 5 shadow freedom palette was $50 AUD with GST included and I think the 10 shadow freedom palette was $80-something. The makeup is made in Poland.
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Skin:
Merlot moisturizer SPF 15
Clinique All About Eyes
Shiseido Sun Protection Eye Cream SPF 25
Hourglass Cosmetics mineral primer

Face:
MUFE HD foundation #120
Clinique All About Eyes Concealer #Light Golden
TKB Trading silica powder

Cheeks:
MAC blush #Hipness
MAC blush #Emote
Too Faced Candlelight powder

Eyes:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Sugarpill Chromalust #Absinthe*
Sugarpill Eyeshadow #Midori*
MAC eyeshadow #Humid
MAC eyeshadow #Juxt
MAC eyeshadow #Shroom
Kat Von D Tattoo Liner #Trooper
NARS eyeshadow #Night Breed
NARS lengthening mascara
Ebay eyelashes cut in half

Lips:
Lipbalm w/ SPF
Too Faced lip insurance primer
NYX lip pencil #Orange
LimeCrime lipstick #My Beautiful Rocket
Lancome Juicy Tube #Sweet Punch

*Sugarpill products were complimentary to be used in my makeup videos

Macroviolet, Waveline, Blitz and Glitz

Ultra-smooth, Fluidline’s gel formula provides the precision of a liquid liner with a silkier, softer finish. Goes on “foolproof” with a brush in an easy dip-and-stroke action. Long-wearing. Smudge-proof. Lines up in a rich array of colours and finishes. Brush sold separately.

Size: .3 g/.01 oz
Price: $15.00 USD
Where to buy: MAC stores, MAC counters, maccosmetics.com

There’s a reason why I don’t use MAC fluidlines, but I wanted to give them another try and I’m reminded why they don’t exist in my makeup arsenal…As far as packaging goes, I really like the jars that the fluidlines come in. The jars are made of thick glass that seems very durable as far as a glass jar goes and the lid screws on easily. The lid is made of a sturdy hard plastic material. It doesn’t feel like cheap packaging. Overall, the design and material of the jar is really practical and efficient for harboring gel liners. Out of all the gel liners I’ve tried, I like the fluidline packaging the most.

MAC fluidlines are very fluid like, hence the name I guess, but I find them to be too runny. The liners aren’t pigmented; they don’t give off a rich colour. Who wants a sheer eyeliner? They are streaky and I had to layer on the eyeliner several times to get a decent level of opaqueness but overall the look was still off. Not only that, but the liners have a tendency to fade and smudge some. MAC fluidlines are overrated and I’d recommend using the gel liners from Clinique, which are about the same price as MAC, or the award winning Bobbi Brown liners, which are more expensive but worth it for the quality. I like the Clinique and Bobbi Brown gel liners because they aren’t too hard and dry, like Stila and L’Oreal HIP for example, yet the liner comes off really opaquely. The only downside to the Clinique liners is that they don’t come in as many shades as the Bobbi Brown liners.
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